On-board Unit Testing, Assembly and Installation

The OBU unit performs a number of functions essential to the success of the pilot including:

captures data from the vehicle

sends data across the mobile network to city-hosted server

receives data back from the city-hosted servers

displays actionable messages to the driver in the vehicle

While the pilot started with a prototype “V2X board”, this board, its firmware, and the software required to manage the OBU still needed to be completed, tested and implemented in a vehicle. This work was largely completed in Q2. After successfully testing a second version of the V2X board, roundtrip data flow was proven and the software required for the first of two use cases (speed and intersection warnings) were deployed on the OBU.

As of the end of Q2, one OBU had been successfully installed in a City of Las Vegas fleet vehicle and 20 more are in the process of being assembled and installed in early Q3 (5 by end of July; 15 by end of August).

Server Infrastructure

In parallel to the OBU work, the City of Las Vegas deployed two servers to host the Remote Vehicle Interaction (RVI) server software and the Hortonworks DataFlow software. Roundtrip testing across an AT&T mobile network was successful resulting in the movement of car data to the RVI server.

Hortonworks completed their software install during the last week of June and would finalize the “hookup” of all necessary data sources to support the first two scenarios by the second week of July. Once this hookup is complete, the necessary logic to produce and return actionable messages to the connected vehicles will be complete for the first two scenarios.

Implicit in this “data source hookup” was the need for the city to identify where both static and dynamic information could be found. Data like speed limits, bus stop location and such are examples of static data. Location of a bus is an example of dynamic data required. The Data subcommittee is actively exploring the necessary data sources to support scenarios three and four (active bus unloading and traffic congestion warning).

Project Dissemination and Mid-year Project Review Preparation

In addition to the project website (http://genivi.vegas) launched in Q2, the months of May and June provided opportunities for project awareness in four distinct contexts. GENIVI held its semi-annual all member meeting in Birmingham, UK, where the pilot was presented. Three weeks later, the pilot was also presented at an automotive industry event called TU-Automotive (http://www.tuauto.com/detroit/) in the Detroit area. GENIVI and Hortonworks teamed to provide additional information about the pilot on the event’s show floor. The pilot was also presented at the DataWorks Summit (https://dataworkssummit.com/san-jose-2017/), a premier “big data” industry event held in San Jose. Finally, the pilot was discussed by City and RTC participants in the Smart Cities Connect conference (http://smartcitiesconnect.com/) in Austin.

The pilot will hold its mid-year project review meeting on 26 July in Las Vegas. A major agenda item for the review will be to determine how to expand the scope of the pilot and include other technologies that complement the pilot’s purpose. To prepare for this, the pilot released a Request for Proposal (RFP) document in May to gather interest from organizations interested in participating in the pilot. These proposals will be the basis for discussion during the 26th where decisions will be taken about pilot expansion.

End of Quarter Status:

Hardware/On-board Unit: The V2X board design was finalized and 100 boards are being assembled in July. Additional OBUs will be available for installation in July (5) and August (15). The software necessary to manage the in-vehicle data capture and message display was also completed and tested.

Servers/Data: Servers to host the Remote Vehicle Interaction (RVI) and Hortonworks DataFlow software were deployed and tested. Hortonworks software will be configured with data sources and scripts necessary to combine the data and to generate messages back to the vehicle to support scenarios 1 and 2. Additional exploration of the necessary data sources to support scenarios 3 and 4 has begun.

Communications: The project received good visibility in four different event contexts in Q2 and is looking forward to presenting during the Global City Team Challenge event in late August. A press release and media event are being planned for that same general timeframe.

Executive: The Executive Subcommittee will meet on July 26 to review the pilot status and discuss priorities for the second half of the year. A priority topic will be determining what additional technologies can be added to the pilot during the last half of the year.